She has Pau Gasol's vote of confidence.
There has never been a female head coach in the NBA. That could change soon if the Toronto Raptors find Becky Hammon worthy of making history.
The 46-year-old is among several candidates for the Raptors' head coaching position, which was vacated following the firing of Nick Nurse. Others in Toronto’s radar are notable assistant coaches, like Kenny Atkinson of the Golden State Warriors, Charles Lee of the Milwaukee Bucks, Kevin Young of the Phoenix Suns, Mitch Johnson of the San Antonio Spurs, and Chris Quinn of the Miami Heat.
Hammon is a WNBA great, having played in the league for 15 seasons and making the All-WNBA First Team twice and the All-WNBA Second Team twice as well. She was also named an All-Star six times and was the WNBA assists leader once—in 2007.
As great as Hammon’s professional career was, her second act as a coach has been equally impressive. Hammon formally got into coaching in 2014 when the San Antonio Spurs hired her as an assistant coach. She was a fixture at the Spurs’ bench for eight seasons, at which point she earned the respect of several players, including two-time NBA champion and now FIBA World Cup ambassador Pau Gasol, who once wrote of Hammon in The Player’s Tribune: “I’m saying Becky Hammon can coach NBA basketball. Period.”
Hammon proved her coaching chops further in the WNBA when, in 2022, she became the first rookie head coach to win a WNBA title after leading the Las Vegas Aces to the mountaintop.
Per Raptors Rapture, Raptors president Masai Ujiri is looking for “someone that is disciplined, works hard, and can instill confidence that turns into tangible internal development.” Hammon certainly fits the bill, but it appears most of the other candidates do, too.
What Hammon has going for her is Ujiri’s willingness to do the unconventional, like breaking up the fan-favorite duo of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, trading for a then injured Kawhi Leonard in 2018, and hiring Nurse in the first place, also in 2018.
Put simply, expect Ujiri to hire based on merit and give Hammon as fair a shot as everybody else.
But if Gasol is spot on in his assessment of Hammon's coaching acumen, then may be it is time for Ujiri and the Raptors to let her make history.